Little known fact -- Portland has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the nation. The entire nation! Inspired by this fact and the many different publications about Portland's food scene, I have decided to start a blog, documenting my tasty adventures during my visits home to Portland. I will also post fun food articles and books that I come across. This blog is intended to be a fun experiment for me, and food pornography for anyone who decides to follow along. Bon appetite!

Click here to see a map of where all of these great restaurants are located!

That's right, what used to be Kettleman's is now Einstein Bros. The tasty boiled bagels that were signature to Kettleman's are now gone.*

According to the new FAQ section of the Einstein Bros website I was redirected to when I typed in http://www.kettlemanbagels.com/, Einstein Bros bought Kettleman's because they are committed to growing their relationship with the community by opening the Einstein Bros bagel brand. Unfortunately, the new storefront on NW Lovejoy in between 23rd and 24th reminded me of a standard fast-food bakery... I guess it is just another classic story of a big ugly food chain buying out a small yummy food chain. Okay, maybe that is not a classic story, but one thing is for certain, I am going to miss Kettleman's dearly.

*What's that Einsteen Bros? You say there will still be three versions of boiled bagels? Well, you may call them boiled bagels, but the everything bagel I ate this afternoon did not compare in the slightest to the carby-deliciousness that were once Kettleman's bagels.

I have yet to visit Flavour Spot in a while, but I found some old pictures of a visit last summer on my cell phone so I thought I would write about it today! Home of the "Dutch Taco," Flavour Spot created Portland's Original Waffle Sandwich. I would venture to say that it is the best waffle spot in Oregon, but I have yet to visit the Waffle Window off the corner of SE 36th and Hawthorne, which I have only heard great things about...

My friends posing for a picture after finishing a delicious breakfast at Flavour Spot.

My favorite item at Flavour Spot is the Black Forest, a seven-inch round waffle baked to order and wrapped to eat and go with Nutella and organic raspberry jam ($3.75). While I will admit that the sweetness is a lot to handle and that it can get a little messy with the melted chocolate and warm jam, it is definitely worth trying--maybe consider going with a friend and sharing the Black Forest along with one of their other less sugary items! The other waffle I have had is the PBM, which is a waffle with 100% pure organic maple syrup spread and peanut butter ($4.25). To learn more about their delicious concoctions, click here to see the menu.

From this picture, I think it is pretty clear that I (left) love the Black Forest.

Erica, Catie and Emma seem to be pretty into the Black Forest, too! (I encouraged them all to order it).

Flavour Spot also carries sweet and savory waffles, like the Sausage and Maple, which consists of a waffle with pork sausage patties and that delicious maple syrup spread I already mentioned ($4.75). When I revisit the cart this summer, I will definitely be tempted to try this and the Ham and Cheddar ($4.50).

While I have only visited their cart on the corner of NE Mississippi and Fremont, I found out from the website that Flavour Spot also has a cart on North Lombard, in between Denver and Greeley. The only differences between the two locations is that the Fremont location also serves hot dogs and soft serve ice cream.

Not too flashy, Flavour Spot is easy to miss! To see when it is open and how to get there, click here for the hours and directions for the Fremont location.

So, if you are looking for a sweet treat this summer, you cannot go wrong with anything you order from Flavour Spot. Plus, it is located right next to Mississippi Avenue, so you can grab your waffle and shop around all of the fun boutiques in the neighborhood!

Everyone in Portland loves Elephants. Whether you need to meet someone to catch up on each other's lives or want to grab something on the go, Elephants is the perfect spot. Elephants opened in 1979. They set up shop in a failing deli and introduced good wine, cheese and coffee to the then un-cosmopolitan Portland. It was, and still is, the creme de la creme of food to go.

In 2004, Elephants moved out of their original location in Uptown Shopping Center and into a new building on NW 22nd, right off of Burnside. While this new location is their main store, they also have a storefront in downtown Portland. This store was opened in 2000, with the intention of being a smaller and quicker version of the big store. They also have another shop at the Portland International Airport. Both of these smaller outlets are called Flying Elephants.

I find new tasty treats in Elephants every time I go, but some of my favorites include their Chinese Barbecue Chicken with Mustard Sauce, Willamette Valley Salad, Chicken Enchilada Verde, Banana Bread and any of their desserts! As you can tell, there is quite a myriad of choices from which to choose.

Elephants recently changed some of their signature items, including their Northern Italian Sandwich. While they still have a similar sandwich, the new version simply does not compare. (I hate it when restaurants do not realize when they have a good thing going!)

Although I tend to pick up my food to go, I have had many pleasant meals in Elephants. Just recently, I had lunch with my internship supervisors at the main store. We sat at the long table in the middle of the seating area because we were not able to secure a booth during the busy lunch hour, but it was very pleasant. I recommend going mid-afternoon if you want to have a seat inside, but there is usually always somewhere to sit outside if you go during the more popular hours.

I do not have any pictures of previous meals I have eaten from Elephants, but it is absolutely worth it to go into the store and check out what they have to offer for yourself! I guarantee you will not leave with a hungry stomach...

Get ready for a slew of blog posts over the next three months! As of 10:00 AM this morning, I am home in Portland for the summer. To celebrate the end of the school year and the beginning of summer, my mom took my friend, Sophie, and me to one of my favorite restaurants in Portland--Andina. Located at Northwest 13th and Glisan, Andina offers a taste of Peru in the Pearl District.

The restaurant features a native Peruvian cooking staff and very attentive servers (our server tonight was especially good). While they have a very extensive menu, including tapas, entrees and desserts, I have only ever stuck to the tapas and dessert menus. "El menú de entradas" includes over three dozen options. While I would order every dish if I could, I suggest ordering two small plates per person if you are going to eat exclusively off of the tapas menu. Each small plate is $10 (a recent increase in the price from $9). However, if something looks particularly tasty, there are also medium and large plates too, which cost $19 and $36 respectively.

Tonight, we ordered ensalada verde peruana, yuca rellena, empanadas de carne, palta rellena de cangrejo, wantanes de mariscos, conchas a la parilla and causa morada. Each dish and its contents are included below.

Complimentary quinoa bread with three dipping sauces: a spicy green jalapeño-based sauce, a medium passionfruit-based sauce and and a mild peanut-based sauce.

While we ate a lot of delicious savory dishes, there was no way I was going to pass up Andina's signature mousse de valle y selva. I have had this dessert every time I go to Andina and I did not think I should break the tradition this time around.

Despite it being one of my favorite desserts on the planet, we were too full to finish the very last bite!

On a side note, tonight was the first night that my friend Sophie ordered an alcoholic beverage in a restaurant! Whether or not she was legally allowed to is debatable, but she certainly enjoyed her Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay (to see the wine list, click here)!

In my attempts to avoid reading Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and as a result of feeling a little homesick , I decided that I would procrastinate by posting on the blog about The Grilled Cheese Grill. Why, of all the food carts in Portland, would I decide to write about The Grilled Cheese Grill, you ask? Well, this evening I had a grilled cheese at the dining hall and with each bite, all I could think about was the BABS--a delectable grilled swiss cheese sandwich on rye with bacon, apples and blue cheese ($6.00). Needless to say, my grilled cheese sandwich tonight did not compare.

The Grilled Cheese Grill has two locations, one on SE 28th and Ankeny and the other on the corner of NE 11th and Alberta. The Ankeny location has a fantastic double decker bus, pictured above, that has been converted into a dining room of sorts. Whenever I opt to eat-in rather than take-out, I enjoy sitting on the bus and admiring the old yearbook photos of people that cover the bars and tables.

Over my fall break last year, I was pleased to discover that The Grilled Cheese Grill offers gluten-free sandwiches. Above is a picture of my celiacs-inflicted friend Christine, happily ordering her sandwich on gluten-free bread.

While "The Goods" section of the menu is a practical meal, I am excited to try "The Sweets" section when I am home over the summer, especially the Jaime ($5.50), which includes marscapone, nutella and grilled banana. For what more could a girl ask?

Well this is exciting news! Ignoring the fact that I am 192 days and 11 hours away from turning 21, Cartlandia's (a pod of food carts located on SE 82nd Avenue) approved liquor license should lead to much more foot traffic around the lot this spring and summer. The different carts include London Pasty shop (traditional pasties and sausage rolls), CheeseSteak Nirvana (phillie-style sandwiches and homemade ice cream), Deb's Blazin' Grill (great weiners), Brotherhood Expresso (traditional and creative Mexican food), Rock House Grill (American and hearty food), La Tinga Tango (spicy Latin food), Relish (specialty hot dogs and more) and GF Chef (the only exclusively gluten-free cart in Portland). Cartlandia is open Monday through Sunday from 6:00 AM to 12:00 AM.

The Whole Bowl is one of my favorite food carts in Portland. Today, I went to the one on NW 11th and Glisan in the Pearl District, but there are Whole Bowl carts in two other locations: 4411 SE Hawthorne (which has indoor seating) and SW 9th and Alder.

Described on their website as "eating a hug," the Whole Bowl has two menu options: Bambino Bowl and Big Bowl. One is $5, the other is $5.50. Even though it only costs 50 cents more for the larger size, I consistently find myself unable to even eat the whole Bambino Bowl. Inside the bowl of deliciousness, you can find brown rice, red and black beans, fresh avocado, salsa, black olives, sour cream, Tillamook cheddar cheese, cilantro and Tali Sauce.

What is Tali Sauce you ask? The first time I went, I was a little ambiguous about the Tali Sauce, primarily because I had never heard of it, but also because it is very yellow. While I still do not know the exact ingredients, it has a lemon-garlic taste and, as I now understand, is referred to by many as "crack sauce". Essentially, it makes the Whole Bowl, the Whole Bowl.

Bambino Bowl without Cilantro $5.00

As a side note, I personally hate cilantro. So while cilantro is one of the main ingredients in the Whole Bowl, The Whole Bowl accomodates its customers by taking special orders, so I do not have to pick out the dreaded herb.

All in all, if you're only in Portland for one day and you are dying to try out or are craving food cart food, I highly recommend the Whole Bowl. Even to those who can't eat gluten, because the Whole Bowl is gluten-free!

Finally I am able to post about a Portland restaurant after two months of being away! While I am only home for a short stint over my spring break, I am attempting to make as many posts as possible before I return to Southern California for two more months before summer.

While Sal's is not necessarily a hip spot in Portland, it is the restaurant my family frequents the most. Located in the Uptown Shopping Center of Northwest Portland, Sal's offers high quality Italian food for a very reasonable price.

Roasted Beet Salad with Oranges, Goat Cheese and Candied Walnuts $7.00 (I was a little too excited to eat this one to remember to take a picture...)

Speaking of the great deals to be had at Sal's, my dad went on a little whee about Sal's over dinner. After taking a bite of his Chicken Picatta, my dad described Sal's as having "a convenient location," "a great wine list," and "delicious entrees for a fraction of the price offered by comparable Portland restaurants."

While Sal's is not my favorite restaurant in Portland, it gets the job done. And, it makes my mom happy, which is a bonus (of all the places to eat in Portland, she chose Sal's as her Valentine's Day Dinner restaurant).

P.S. I apologize for the quality of the photos. I accidentally left my camera down in California, so I am left with the camera on my iPhone to document my food adventures during this trip home.

Food Carts Portland is the website to go to for all things food cart related in Portland. The website conveniently has a comprehensive map of the more than 200 food carts in Portland and an app available for your iPhone or iPad!

However, the thing that intrigues me most about Food Carts Portland is their food cart tours! For $25.00, you can learn the history of food carts in Portland, why there is such a scene for them in Portland, what works for food carts and what does not work, visits to some of Portland's best food carts and--the only reason I would go on the tour--food tasting from some of Portland's best carts! I have not heard from anyone who has actually been on the tour, but I am very interested in trying it out the next time I am home in Portland. Even if the actual tour is subpar, I am sure the food is delicious.

Sadly for this blog, I am back at school, studying and soaking up the 76-degree California weather. However, between playing golf and my hours of homework, I managed to escape the toils of Claremont to visit Pasadena and the Huntington Gardens today. After walking around the property and appreciating the various native plants in the Desert Garden, I stopped to take a gander in the gift shop (one of my favorite parts of visiting a museum).

Much to my surprise, I stumbled upon this gem on one of the bookshelves!

As the book jacket so succinctly puts it, "Our busy twenty-first-century lifestyle doesn't allow much time for us to enjoy the pleasures of a good meal. Literary Feasts aims to change that by restoring readers' desires to eat, drink and be merry."

The book is divided into different sections. The first four sections are "Breakfast," "Lunch," "Tea" and "Dinner," highlighting meals from James Joyce's Ulysses, John Milton's Paradise Lost, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and even Beowulf! The other, broader sections are "Eating Outdoors," "Children's Meals" and "Special Occasions."

To give you a sampling of how each section reads, each two pages focuses on one feast in a particular literary work. The spread includes an introduction to the book, what you will need to reenact the scene and sometimes a recipe. To reenact "the splendor of one of Gatsby's famous receptions" in F. Scott Fitzgerald famous novels, you will need: champagne and claret, wine glasses bigger than finger bowls, moonlight on the lawn, banjo players and jazz signers, two suppers (five hours apart), old men dancing with young girls and an air of world-weary sophistication. Sure, it's a tall order, but you get the idea!

Saint Cupcake makes, to this date, the best cupcakes I have ever tasted. If I had to count the number of these delectable little cakes that I have eaten over the years... well, let's just say the number would be pretty appalling.

The menu varies from day to day, but they always have their standard cupcakes available. My favorites include the toasted coconut cream, chocolate with vanilla buttercream, carrot cake and the big top (vanilla cupcake baked with chocolate chips on top). But, let's be real, I will eat any of them--including the few vegan cupcakes they offer daily! Here is a link to their menu to see today's offerings: http://saintcupcake.com/index.php/menus/.

Not too long ago, Saint Cupcake left their original store in Northwest Portland for a much larger location in Downtown Portland, on the corner of SW 12th and Morrison. At this new location, which they call Saint Cupcake Galore, they offer other sweet and savory treats. While the new location is nice, I miss the old store. In fact, I find myself going to the new store less and less because of the distance and inability to find convenient parking (to their credit, there is a single free parking space behind the store for customers who just want to run in and pick up a few cupcakes).

Dot Cupcakes $1.50

Regular Cupcakes $3.25

Better pictures to come with future visits, but for now, here is a photo my friend Paloma took on her film camera during her visit to Portland.

Potato Champion is one of the several food carts grouped together on the corner of 12th and Hawthorne. Open everyday of the week except for Monday, they have some of the best fries I have ever eaten!

While the fries are enough to make Potato Champion a worthwhile stop, they also offer an eclectic selection of dipping sauces. When I went with two of my friends visiting from college, we ordered a small cone (which was the perfect size for an afternoon snack for three people) with their Rosemary Truffle Ketchup, Chipotle Mayo and Bourbon Honey Mustard. The Rosemary Truffle Ketchup is delicious, but definitely a safer bet. The Chipotle Mayo was fine, not my favorite, but I loved the Bourbon Honey Mustard! You could definitely taste the alcohol and it was not too sweet for a honey mustard. However, I would suggest getting at least two dipping sauces if you order the Bourbon Honey Mustard because it does have a little bit of a kick to it...

Small Cone with Three Sauces $4.75

While I tend to stick to ordering a cone and the different dipping sauces, you can also order french fries with all the fixings served already on the fries. One of these specially prepared dishes that I am interested in trying is the PB&J fries, which consists of their french fries topped with their peanut satay sauce and raspberry chipotle jelly. For their full menu, you can visit http://www.potatochampion.com/Menu or just go to the food cart itself on 1207 SE Hawthorne Boulevard.

Cacao has two stores, both located in Portland (one is attached to the Heathman Hotel on Broadway and the other is on 13th Avenue in the Pearl District). While Cacao has a wonderful supply of chocolate from around the world, they are best known for their chocolate drinks.

I have been to Cacao a few times, but only this last time was I daring enough to move away from their delicious hot chocolate and try their flight of all three drinking chocolate shots.

Flight of all Three Drinking Chocolate Shots $6.00

The flight includes a cinnamon infused drinking chocolate, a Rivoli dark drinking chocolate and a special spicy dark drinking chocolate. My least favorite was the special spicy, only because I am not a huge fan of dark chocolate and it calls for a 72% Arriba dark chocolate infused with cayenne pepper, smoked paprika and ginger. However, it was a close call between the cinnamon infused drinking chocolate, which has some milk chocolate mixed in with dark chocolate, and the Rivoli, but I think the Rivoli was actually my favorite. It is more simple than the special spicy with the same 72% Arriba dark chocolate, but without all of the spices.

I, of course, sampled these with two friends and definitely do not recommend more than one shot for one person. Next time, even though the three shots were definitely an experience, I do not think I will go for the flight again. I will instead opt for my hot chocolate, but I am definitely glad to have tried their signature item!

I went to Masu Sushi earlier this month to celebrate my dad's 59th birthday with family and friends. Tucked in next to American Apparel in the Pearl District on 13th Avenue, Masu Sushi is not well marked, but definitely worth checking out.

You can sit at a table or at the bar. We sat at a table, but apparently there are a few unique eating options exclusive to those who sit at the bar. This came up because my mom asked for the cucumber salad she had the last time she was there and the waitress explained that was only an option for those who sit at the bar. My mom, notorious for being a little fussy when her desires are not met in restaurants, was obviously a little peeved about this. In her defense, I think it is a little strange not to accommodate a simple special request like hers...

Nevertheless, one thing that is available to everyone is the St. Helen's Volcano pictured below. I highly recommend it to anyone who goes. It contains white fish, crabs, scallops, shrimp and avocado baked with their volcano cream sauce, eel sauce and smoked bonito.

St. Helen's Volcano 6-Piece $12.00

My friend Paloma was interested in the "volcano" aspect of the dish. After tasting it a few times, she asked the waitress what created the flame. "Salt and 151, so make sure not to eat it."

Other things on the menu that I do not have pictured, but are very tasty, include the Transformer (softshell crab, cucumber, spicy tuna and avocado with spicy serrano dippy sauce), and, for those reading who are not huge fans of sushi, the Tonkotsu Ramen, which consists of Kyushu-style pork bone broth with porkbelly chashu and egg.

The Bijou is one of my favorite breakfast spots in Portland. They have amazing omelettes and brioche french toast. While I usually go the sweet route when it comes to breakfast food, my family all ordered savory dishes this morning.

I was so excited to start eating that, five bites into eating our meal, I realized I had not taken any pictures of our food--a true testament to the deliciousness of the Bijou's cuisine. While there is usually a bit of a wait, once you are seated and have made your order, the food comes very quickly. Parking can also be a bit tricky but, again, the food is definitely worth the time and energy.

* The Farmer's omelette is famed as being the perfect hangover-curing breakfast(definitely something to keep in mind...)

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About Me

West Coast Food Journal is my second food blog. I started Portland Food Journal a year ago as an experiment. Not only was I intrigued by the fact that Portland has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the nation, but I also wanted an outlet to track all of the amazing restaurants I have been able to visit. In addition to Portland and other Oregon restaurants, West Coast Food Journal will feature restaurants from California and Washington, as well as interesting food articles, recipes and books. Bon appetite!